date-format

[ohruud]

Hi there,

I am trying to concert som data into a date-datatype, but for some reason, the conversion changes the format. 

It is a excel file that bring in the data as string, and the format of the date is dd.mm.yyyy.  When I covert the data into a date-datatype, it changes the order, and returns yyyy-dd-mm.  

I used the formula tool with this formula:   DateTimeParse([Dat],"%d.%m.%y")

Thanks in advance

[Blake]

EDIT : Hi @ohruud - I read your question wrong when I responded a minute ago, I'll check it out and reply if someone else doesn't before I get back to it. Apologies for the false start! 

[ChrisTX]

The DateTime data type in Alteryx will always store the date in the YYYYMMDD format.

If you want it in another format, you can convert it to a string with the DateTimeFormat function, which outputs a String data type.

Chris

[ohruud]

Ah, okei. So yyyy-mm-dd is the only format alteryx allows in terms of doing calculations ? 

[Blake]

That is correct. It is very common for people to change their date format at the end of a workflow for familiarity in reporting outputs. 

[ohruud]

I see.  Thank you so much 🙂

[ohruud]

Hi Blake, 

I just have one more question

When i used the DateTimeParse formul, the dates came out correctly.  However, when i used the datetime tool and custom-fitted the incomming string to be dd.mm.yyyy, the result came out wrong. 

I had for example the date 11.12.2000, and it came out as 2000-01-11  00:12:00  instead of 2000-12-11. Dont know why. 

[grossal · Accepted solution]

you have to use MM instead of mm.

mm is used for Minutes

MM is used for Months

[ohruud]

Thanks 🙂

[hernanguillear]

the YYYYMMDD format, is the default format for Alteryx?